A communication system is a facility that enables communication between two or more entities such as user terminal equipment and/or network entities and other nodes associated with a communication system. The communication may comprise, for example, communication of voice, electronic mail (email), text messages, data, multimedia and so on.
The communication may be provided by fixed line and/or wireless communication interfaces. A feature of wireless communication systems is that they provide mobility for the users thereof. An example of communication systems providing wireless communication is a public land mobile network (PLMN). An example of the fixed line system is a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
A communication system typically operates in accordance with a given standard or specification which sets out what the various elements of a system are permitted to do and how that should be achieved. For example, the standard or specification may define if the user or more precisely user equipment, is provided with a circuit switched server or a packet switched server or both. Communication protocols and/or parameters which should be used for the connection are also typically defined. For example, the manner in which communication is implemented between the user equipment and the elements of the communication networks is typically based on a predefined communication protocol. In other words, a specific set of “rules” on which the communication can be based needs to be defined to enable the user equipment to communicate via the communication system.
The introduction of the so called third generation (3G) communication systems will significantly increase the possibilities for accessing services on the Internet via mobile user equipment (UE) as well as other types of UE.
Various user equipment (UE) such as computers (fixed or portable), mobile telephones, personal data assistants or organisers and so on are known to the skilled person and can be used to access the Internet to obtain services. Mobile user equipment referred to as mobile stations can be defined as means capable of communication via a wireless interface with another device such as a base station of a mobile telecommunications network or any other entity.
The term “service” used in this document should be understood to broadly cover any service or goods which a user may desire, require or be provided with. The term will also be understood to cover the provision of complimentary services. In particular, but not exclusively, the term “service” will be understood to include Internet protocol multimedia IM services, conferencing, telephony, gaming, rich call, presence, ecommerce and messaging e.g. instant messaging.
The 3G partnership project (3GPP) is defining a reference architecture for the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) core network which will provide the users of user equipment UE with access to these services. This UMTS core network is divided into three principal domains. These are the circuit switched domain, the packet switched domain and the Internet protocol multimedia (IM) domain.
The IM domain makes sure that multimedia services are adequately managed. The IM domain supports the session initiation protocol (SIP) as developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
In addition, there are several access technologies (GERAN GSM/EDGE radio access network, UTRAN Universal terrestrial radio access network and WLAN wireless local area network).
Since there are several domains and a number of new emerging services within the 3GPP mobile system and access technologies, a generic user profile GUP has been developed to provide a conceptual description to enable harmonised usage of the user related information located in different entities. Examples of services include multimedia messaging MMS, SMS, Chat, telephony, games, browsing/web services, download, e-commerce. This has created a need for a standard user profile management and access.
The GUP is also used in subscription management.
Various aspects of the GUP are defined in the following 3GGP specifications: TS22.240, TS23.240, TS23.241 and TS29.240.
However, the current definition for the GUP does not define any model for authorisation. Authorisation has legal aspects (privacy) and it may easily become much too complicated for the operators and/or end users to manage.
It is therefore an aim of embodiments of the present invention to address these problems.